High-intensity light can be applied to skin for various medical treatments. Common sources of electromagnetic radiation used for dermal and epidermal treatments include lasers, flashlamps, and RF sources. In the past, for example, skin has been treated with EMR to provide for hair removal, and other skin treatments.
In part because of the cost associated with laser systems, efforts were made to develop direct filtered flashlamp treatment devices, sometimes referred to as intense pulsed light devices, or IPL devices. These IPL devices are generally less expensive to produce and operate than lasers. The different quality of light from IPL devices (non-monochromatic, incoherent and divergent) is generally acceptable for many epidermal and dermal applications, as opposed to some other applications where lasers have traditionally been used, such as ophthalmology procedures where tight focusing and low divergence of the treatment energy can be crucial.
Dermatological flash lamps and associated systems are described in the following pending applications owned by the assignee of the present application: U.S. application Ser. No. 10/351,981, filed Jan. 7, 2003 (US Publication No. US 2004/0147985), U.S. application Ser. No. 11/051,887, Filed Feb. 4, 2005 (US Publication No. US 2005-0177141), and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/414,441, filed Apr. 28, 2006 (US Publication No. US 2007-0255265). Each of these applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present application discloses a flashlamp system and various methods for using the flashlamp system. In a disclosed embodiment for treatment of dermatological lesions, current density control is used to tailor the spectral distribution so that it is most suitable for the type of lesions to be treated (e.g. pigment lesions or vascular lesions including facial telangiectasias or diffuse redness). According to one disclosed method, a user identifies a type of facial lesion present in an area of skin to be treated, and selects between a first treatment mode that will operate the flashlamp at a first current density that will produce a first spectral output tailored for a first type of lesion, or a second (or third etc.) treatment mode to operate the same flashlamp at a different current density to operate the flashlamp at a second current density tailored for a different type of lesion. This method can obviate the need for changeable filters or handpieces on a dermatological treatment system.